2012, what lies ahead.

I wanted to write a 2011 End of Year recap post, I really did, but I had trouble with my blogger app on the iPad during our trip to Canada and I couldn't muster the enthusiasm once we returned. I keep thinking about it though, so maybe I'll get to it at some point because it was not an entirely wasted year, even though it felt that way at times. Instead I am looking forward at 2012 with lots of excitement and anticipation. Looking back on 2011 I realized that with the exception of my massive ankle injury, the only thing holding me back from kicking ass was ME. I feel like I've been a wimp, I've taken too many recovery days when they weren't really necessary, and I simply did not push myself anywhere near my potential. Maybe this is why I need to do a recap, to remember the times that I was training really hard and pushing myself (think: Spring and early summer and one last hurrah in July) but I feel like I slacked and should have raced more so that I wouldn't be sitting here now with that "I really should have done ____ race." 


So 2012 will involve better planning, more racing (of all different varieties!) and stronger training. It is that simple. 



What do I have to look forward to, you might ask, well I am starting off the year with plans for a Spring marathon, though I haven't chosen which one just yet. I'm thinking something small and low key in April, just to get the year going strong. I have never done a Spring marathon because the winters here can be horrific, but this mild weather tells me that is may be my year! I survived the really treacherous weather last year without running on a treadmill once, so if this weather keeps up I can definitely do that again (if necessary). Before April I have two half marathons planned and a 5K, all building blocks for the marathon. 

Here's a rough plan for the year ahead: 


January 
21st- Manhattan Half Marathon. Not an "A" race by any means, but I'd like to run a solid, sub 1:48 or so.


February
 I have no race plans for February, just lots of training in the pool, on the road, and building strength in the gym. I'll be slowly adding mileage and seeing how my still-defunct ankle reacts. I also may go on vacation.  


March
4th- Coogan's 5K. I have run this race several times, but I rarely get to RACE it, so I think I'll be blazing the hills this year. 


18th- Shamrock 1/2 Marathon in VA Beach. This is an "A" race for me, I PRed here two years ago with a 1:40 and while I'd love to crush that, I will probably be deep in marathon training and will have to see where I am at that point. 


April
Insert Marathon Here. Wherever I end up running, I'll be shooting to crush that 3:46 from NYCM '10. 


May
I don't have anything planned for May just yet, I will probably take a few weeks to recover from the marathon and begin serious swim training for the summer. Stay tuned. 
Also, the NYRR calendar doesn't go past March yet and I haven't checked the NYCRuns website yet to see what is going on in our area. 


**I just noticed that the NY Tri in Harriman State park is May 20th! 


June
3rd- Central Park Challenge, trying to keep the streak alive from 2009, 10 and 11 and win another award. I'd also love to break 21:00...by a lot. 


16th- Stars&Stripes Aquathlon (1.5K swim and 5K run) I skipped this race last year because it didn't fit into my training plan, but that was dumb and I still regret it. These are my two strongest events and I can't wait to try it. 


23-24th- Green Mountain Relay in Vermont (200 miles, 12 people team) See my posts from 2010. 


No Chesapeake Bay Swim for me this year, it is an expensive and HOT race, so I'm taking the year off and may do it again in 2013. 


July
22nd-  Grimaldo's Mile, CIBBOW's swim in Coney Island. 
28th- Governor's Island Swim 2.0 miles 
July will probably be a lot of swimming and prepping for the A race of all A races in August... 


AUGUST 
4th- Manhattan Island Marathon Relay Swim! 28.5 miles around the island, alternating with 3 other amazing swimmers. I can't wait! 


12th- (Possibly, date isn't updated yet) Fire Island sound swim in Long Island, NY (Stonewall Swim).


I would love to do a few more sprint triathlons in August, but I haven't planned that far out just yet. 


September
8th- Aquarium 5K swim, CIBBOWS in Coney Island 
OR Pageant Swim in Atlantic City, NJ 


Mid-Sept Swim for ALS- date not set yet for 2012, http://www.macangelsevents.org/macangels/default.asp


15th- NY Triathlon, #2 of the series.


22nd- Little Red Lighthouse swim by NYC Swim. 10K swim down the Hudson. I am still kicking myself for missing this race last year and I will NOT miss it this year. I already registered! 


Oct-Dec 
The final 1/3 of the year remains wide open. I think I'll be considering the Brooklyn Marathon since it was so well done this year, as well as maybe doing some 10K racing here and there. Who knows... 

Tri training is in full force

I have been keeping myself occupied away from the phone and computer lately with plenty of training, but with the heat wave in full force outside I thought I'd catch up on my blog. I finally got back on the bike at the end of June after a long hiatus and I'm actually happy to be back on it. The bike is not my favorite part of the triathlon, I'd be happy doing swim/run races forever, but the bike is there so I'd better get going on it. I am TRYING to get into a routine where I bike to work or just get out and ride at least once a week, so we'll see how that goes.

I got an early start on the weekend last week and hit the road with my bike strapped to the trunk of my car on Thursday night as I headed for the Jersey beaches. I always panic a bit for the first few minutes while driving with the bike on my car rack, but since the George Washington Bridge was the first part of my drive I was extra nervous. I made it down to Mom's without any problems after an hour or so of "omg my bike looks like it is coming loose!" which were all unfounded. I tried to make it an early night, but I didn't even arrive at Mom's until around 10 or 10:30 which sucked because I had to get up at 5 to swim.

Thursday afternoon I spent some time searching online for a swim club or tri team to join for their morning ocean swim and I stumbled upon the Jersey Shore Tri club. Someone from the group kindly emailed me back and let me know they'd be swimming in Bay Head at 6am. Perfect! I joined the group bright and early with a stunning view of the sun rising out of the sea a fiery magenta. It was gorgeous, I miss swimming in the ocean and any other open water during the week so it was great to hit the open sea. As frequently happens, I was the only swimmer out of the 8 or 9 of us there who was swimming in traditional swimsuit, everyone else was pulling on those horrid, sweaty wetsuits. People always have excuses too about why they need them, "I'm getting old" (bullshit) or "I need the buoyancy" (also bullshit, we're in the ocean) but no one in this group was like that, so I respected them for that. I still wish people would practice in traditional suits so they they could improve as a real swimmer and if they still felt the need to cheat in a race, then so be it. I digress.

The swim itself wasn't as beautiful as the sunrise had promised thanks to swarms of slimy, gooey salp which surrounded me, tried to get in my mouth and probably are growing families deep in my ear canals. Salp is a tiny planktonic tunicate, in other words it is a gooey sac-like filter feeder that eats phytoplankton. They look like this and travel in packs of like a billion:

Imagine fishing thousands of these out of your suit and hair.

The salp are supposed to hang out near Antarctica, but they appear to be lost and are hanging off of the east coast in the very warm water. People often mistake them for "jellyfish eggs" or "fish eggs". If you've ever seen caviar you'd know that they are not fish eggs, but from experience I can tell you that they taste about the same. Eww.

The group and I swam about 1.5 miles or so, swimming north a few jetties and then back to our starting point where we decided to keep going because the water was a nice ~73 or so and everyone felt fine. I liked this group. I don't regret doing the extra half a mile or so, but man was that the worst part of the entire morning. The clumps of salp were so thick that I had to put my head down and swim as hard and far as I could before taking a breath. I did not want to swallow any of those buggers. Yuck. Imagine yourself swimming in a pool full of chopped up gummy bears with little stringy bits between them. I made a vow right then and there to never complain about the weeds in the St Lawrence River again.

After the swim I changed into my bike gear (I always feel like a goober, how come some people look so COOL on a bike?) and headed out for a 30 mile ride. I picked 30 because it was my target distance a week or so before, but I only had time for 25. I'm not following any particular training plan right now, so I just hopped on and headed south. The shoulders along Rt 35 in Bay Head, Mantoloking and beyond could use a little smoothing, my hands and butt could attest to that for a few days post-ride. I enjoyed my ride for the most part though, and was happy for the nice weather and fairly light traffic since it was still really early in the day. I rode south through Lavallette and Seaside Park and Heights until I finally hit Island Beach State Park at the southern tip of the island. It is a great place to ride and I saw several other cyclists out, but I wasn't going the full 10 miles in and back out today. I hit the 15 mile mark, had a snack and turned around, I was really happy to finally have the wind at my back. I was able to kick it up and head back to the car much faster than the way down because the wind was pretty strong. Boy, I hope I don't have a headwind for my half ironman, that'd be a bitch. I managed to make it most of the way back before hitting a nasty pothole with 4 miles to go. Ouch, the thump reverberated in my hands for the final few miles. *mental note: get new cycling gloves* I finished 30 miles in 2:01:13 and I'm happy with that. I have no real concept of a great cycling time, but I felt good and I felt like I put in a good effort. I think at this point in my training I just need to rack up some time in the saddle. I should probably bring my bike Upstate with me this weekend to get in a few hills.

It was shortly after I posted my swim and ride on Facebook that I realized "Wow, I'm tri training!" I have three triathlons on the horizon, two of which are coming up pretty quickly! TheNJ State (sprint) Tri is on the 23rd, the day after what would have been my Nan's 88th birthday and I'm doing it with a friend that I've known since childhood. I'm really looking forward to racing again! The NYC triathlon (Olympic) is on August 7th, less than a month away! I also have the Pocono Mountain 70.3 in October, but lets not talk about that just yet. Yikes.

Tomorrow I plan on biking to work for the first time and I'm excited about it, but a little nervous about the logistics and forgetting something important like underwear. I'll be sure to post about my adventures soon.

Are You Ready?

As the big day gets closer, I'm starting to get into the cycle of Excited, Panicky, Excited, OMG, Calm, Excited that comes before all big events so I started packing a little bit tonight. I brought home my goggles, suit and "lucky" cap today after my swim this morning and decided to make sure I have EVERYTHING I need. I won't be allowed to wear my Team Pink cap, but it'll be nice to have it in my bag for the weekend, like a security blanket. :)

The cool thing about swimming is that you need even LESS than you do for running, which can be a really minimal sport if you let it. All I need is my suit, goggles and asthma pump and a few packets of GU to munch along the way. Somehow though, my pile of crap includes the swimskin I borrowed from my Sister in Law (I don't plan on wearing it, I think the water will be warm enough), a towel, extra goggles, extra GU, warm clothes for afterwards, and a cool tshirt that looks like the ocean to hang around in beforehand. I'm sure my awesome TYR bag will be full of even more stuff come Saturday, but this is it for now. I was listening to some tunes while cleaning and packing and this song came on while I was packing:

This song will obviously be on my morning playlist this Sunday.

Memorial Day Swimcation

The Gorgeous Paradox Lake

Last Friday I, like lots of other New Yorkers, headed for the Adirondacks for the long, holiday weekend. It was my chance to get in a few good open water swims before the Great Chesapeake Bay swim in 2 weeks. I've swum in the lake upstate for the last two years and I was really looking forward to it after a long winter and spring in the pool. Concerned that the water was a frosty 53 on Mother's Day, I brought a rented wetsuit as a backup in case the lake was too cold for long swims. I gave the salesperson at Jackrabbit an earful about how I hate wetsuits and how I would never race in one, she probably thought I was a nut. I tucked the stupid thing into my swim bag anyway, praying that I wouldn't need it. (I Didn't!)

When I got upstate to my friend Sally's place we went to the lake and checked the temp and we're pleasantly surprised to find it felt really nice and the thermometer told us that it was around 68! No wetsuit necessary! Whew.

I did two long swims over the weekend, a 2 miler on Saturday and 4 miles on Sunday. Sally swam with me on Saturday for the gorgeous two miles around the lake. I was so happy to be outside in the open water even if it was overcast. I wore my swimskin and it kept my core nice and warm even though my hands and feet were cold. We did the two miles in about an hour with Chuck, Sally's boyfriend, as our kayak support.

Unfortunately I had caught a cold that began to really kick in around Friday night and gained momentum on Saturday. Luckily a lazy evening and some nyquil helped me sleep much better Sat night and I was ready to go on Sunday morning. We took our time getting to the lake in the morning, having some coffee and breakfast to fuel the miles ahead.

I hopped in the lake with both Sally and Chuck in kayaks flanking me as I made my way across the lake. It was fun seeing one of them on either side each time I took a breath, it gave me something to think about other than swimming. The sun came out and my arms stayed warm longer than they had on Sat and I was grateful for that. There was more debris in the lake after a late night storm and I stopped occasionally to avoid some big sticks and collections of debris. Thanks to my kayak crew, I managed to avoid getting hit by any boats or bumping into any major floating branches. I stopped for GU (eww the Cherry lime GU is nasty) 2x and had water a handful of times. There will be "snack" boats along the Chesapeake but I'm not sure where and if I'll be close enough to stop so I carried my own Gels in my suit. I tossed my wrappers on the kayak, but during my swim I'll have to tuck those into my suit as well. In case you're wondering, it isn't difficult to tread water and eat GU, but it doesn't make me want to gag any less than when I'm running. Darn.

Ahh, so I swam and swam and swam, not asking how far I'd gone until about 2.65 miles in. Boo, I was hoping it was closer to 3 at that point, but no. After a trip around the entire lake and 2 loops of an island near where we started Sally paddled to shore and hopped in to join me for the last 1.4 miles. Thank goodness she did because I was getting really chilly and tired and I let her be my guide so I didn't have to lift my head as much. We did an out and back and somewhere along the "out" portion, my arms got numb. I'm pretty sure it was from the cold, but it made for tricky swimming on that last mile. I snuck in a little breast stroke on the way back in here and there because I was losing steam. I somehow convinced myself to swim back to the dock despite a few thoughts of climbing onto the kayak. :) I was pretty sure that Chuck stayed close to me because he was certain that I was on the verge of drowning, or at least that is what my very tired body had convinced me.

When I hit the shore (the beach was underwater because the water level is way above normal) I stumbled up to the grass and plopped down. I was chilly and wiped out and I spotted someone eating cheesy poofs on the dock nearby, so I asked for some. They were the most delicious things I've ever eaten!! They were like Pirate's Booty, but a bright orange fake-cheesy color. Yum. I don't think I ever properly thanked them for their kindness...

My watch said 2:21 when I finished and the GPS said 4.04 miles. Whew. I was wearing my regular Ironman Timex and Chuck was wearing my Garmin (which died at some point) and using his own GPS on the kayak. He was nice enough to put the two swims on a map for me so I have that and the Garmin readouts! The splits aren't as fast as I'd like to be going on race day, but I never stopped my watch (and Garmin's auto-stop was off) when we stopped to chat or when we waited for Sally to switch from kayak to swimming, so I'm guessing I could have been a few minutes faster. I also know that I won't be stopping to chat on race day, so I'm perfectly happy with how it all went. I wouldn't have wanted to put in a race day effort two weeks before the race, my shoulders never would have forgiven me. They're currently still just thinking about forgiving me for swimming 6 miles in 2 days and then kayaking who knows how far on Monday.

With the overwhelming majority of my training behind me, I'm ready to take on the bay!!!

Chuck was nice enough to put these together for me: White is Saturday's 2 miles, Yellow is Sunday's 4.

My neck took a beating from my swimskin and the black flies: (ouch/eww)

Mmmm, what a beautiful day.

The furry company was awfully cute this weekend too:

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What lies ahead...

Looking beyond New York marathon, I entered the lottery for a race that takes place in June every year down in Maryland called the Great Bay Swim. It is a 4.4 mile swim in the Chesapeake Bay and it is exactly what I was looking for in terms of a "big" swim in the early summer of 2011. The first round lottery pick is tomorrow, Nov 4th and I'll be anxiously waiting for an email to find out if I am one of the chosen 700 or so. If chosen, the swimmers have 48 hours to submit proof of an open water swim of at least 1 mile or a signed certificate by a lifeguard verifying that you swam 3 miles in the pool in under 2.5 hours (or around there). I had a small panic attack last week when I realized that my tri swim was 1500m which is the metric equivalent of a swim mile, but actually only 0.9mi. I was losing my mind for a minute when I literally looked up and spotted my medal from the Lavallette 1 mile Ocean Swim that I did this summer. WHEW.

Keep your fingers crossed for me tomorrow!

"Why Not" Friday

One of my favorite summer things to do is to pack up on a Thursday night and get the hell out of the hot, sweaty city for a long weekend. I don't work on Friday's, not really by choice, we don't have enough kids that need PT for me to work full-time, but I digress. The opportunity to slip onto the GWB on a traffic-free Thursday night after a soccer game was irresistible yesterday and I made it to Jersey in record time. After stuffing my face with Mom's blueberry sour cream coffee cake and laying out my gear, I hit the sack.

4:55am came quick and I dragged myself up to get ready for a sunrise swim in Bay Head with a local triathlon group, the Sandy Hookers. (love it.) I've joined a few of their swims this summer and last, and always enjoy the company. Last time I swam, the week before the NYC Tri, the water was a bathtub 75 and I had a great swim. It being August and all, I expected the water today to be closer to 78 and unbearably warm...boy was I in for a surprise. The last few times I joined them, there have been at least 1 or 2 other folks without wetsuits, but not today. 25 of us geared up to dive in, but I was the lone nearly-naked swimmer. I got a lot of "umm you're not wearing a wetsuit?!" to which I replied, "nah, I don't need one." One guy tested the water while we were getting ready and came back to the benches suggesting that it may be too cold for him to go in. In my head I'm thinking, "wimp, geezer, etc." I walked to the shoreline with all of the black fish (that is what they look like in wetsuits) and felt the icy water splash up my calves. OH WOW.

The water was NOT 78, but way, way colder. I figured it was around 69 or so because I couldn't fathom August being any colder... more on that later. I dove in and swam out to meet the other brave souls who were ahead and we treaded water while waiting for the folks on shore to hike up their skirts and get in so we could get moving. After substantial whining, everyone was in and we were off. It felt amazing! I was definitely chilly, but fine. I'm not modest so I'll tell you I was in the lead 2 the whole swim with a nice guy who was chewing tobacco before and after the swim. Gross, but unimportant. We waited at each jetty for everyone to catch up (bad plan) and I got very concerned looks each time, "how ya doing? cold?" Duh. :) When we reached the final jetty someone guessed at the temp of the water and one of the group organizers corrected them and said, "well yesterday the temp was 62, I'd say this is 62 also." I wish he'd not mentioned that because the rest of the way back I was wondering at what temp I'd get hypothermia. Oh well. The swim back was easier than out because the current was coming from the south and we also didn't stop to regroup. That was a blessing because I had no feeling in my hands or from the knees down, but it also meant I spent some quality time alone. I had one moment of "oh god, where is everyone else?" but I could see that I was barely 400ft from shore and neednt worry. I was so cold that I contemplated getting out with 1/4 of a mi or so to go, but decided that jogging along the beach would have sucked with numb feet, so I stayed in and finished it up. I think we swam about 2 miles, around 50 mins for me.

As I stumbled along with my frozen feet up the beach, the guy who didn't do the swim because it was too cold offered me sips of his hot coffee. I'd never met him before today, but I gladly accepted. I was shivering insanely and my lips were blue, but I was kind of proud to have survived the cold and had a great swim too. It took nearly 1/2 an hour to stop shivering and that 30 mins included a big towel, a fleece, the car heater and a hot latte. Once I warmed up, I began sweating because the outside temp was nearing 90 at 7am.

And then the "why not" portion of the day....

After my trip to the coffee shop (where I changed my outfit), I returned to the car and gathered my crap for a bike ride. I haven't been on the bike since the tri 3 weeks ago and have been dying to get on. I also have a tri next weekend, so I needed to get my ass back in the saddle. I puttered around and made sure I had everything before heading out with the intent of riding 15-20 miles. The tri is a sprint next week and the bike is a hilly 15mi, so I just wanted to get in some miles and 15-20 seemed reasonable and not too taxing. I did just swim 2 miles in the ocean, I deserved to slack on the bike, right? Wrong. A mile into the ride, I caught up with 2 men and a woman on bikes moving a little faster than me, but a reasonable pace for me to catch. They were friendly and welcomed me to join them so I figured "why not?" I feel much safer riding with others anyway, especially on busy roads. They asked if I was going to Island Beach State Park and I casually answered that I was headed that way. What I should have said was that I was going in that direction, because IBSP was 12 miles away from where we met. Surely I was going to turn around before that. I was having some ITB pain in my left knee, which happens often on the bike sometimes. As we approached the park, I realized that I was at 13 miles and oops, hadn't turned around yet. We were riding into the wind most of the way (remember, the current coming from the south in the water, the wind was too.) so I told myself that it wouldn't be a big deal to ride the length of the park with them and then turn around and have the wind at our backs for the ride home. They asked if I was going to go with them further and I couldn't think of any reason not to, so I did.

They were CRUISING once we hit the park- 22mph! Way fast for me, but they told me to draft and we had a nice ride out..into the wind. When we turned around, we discovered that the wind was changing and now was coming from the NW. DAMN! The ride back was hot, hot, hot and I gulped my water and chomped my GU chomps and we refilled water and I drank some more. Just thinking about the ride back is making me exhausted right now, it was long but I really enjoyed it. They were excellent company and I showed them a few back roads to get off of Rt 35 for a bit. I was sad to leave them, they were staying a mile or so past my car, but I was happy to get off of the bike and so was my knee. Ouch. I'll be icing that for a few days.

Despite my post-swim/ride savage hunger, I was so happy. I rode 43 miles! And why? Well, all I canthink of is "why not"?

I have an ocean swim race tomorrow morning- 1 mile in the chilly water! Last year I missed placing in my age group by 30 secs or so after no open water training, so I'm hoping to redeem myself this year.

NYC Tri Results

Ok, I'm way too sleepy to blog about the race, but I'm too excited to wait on posting the results....

1.5K swim, 40K bike, 10K run

Total Finishers: 3,472

Overall place: 1169

Age Division F25-29: 42 out of 259

Female Div: 177 out of 1166

Swim: 17:52

613 out of 3,472 (wahooo)

T1(including nearly 1/2 mi barefoot run): 8:28

Bike: 1:30:40

2210 out of 3,472 (eh...decent, I'm happy with it)

T2: 3:43

Run: 45:52 (PR by 2+mins)

7:24 pace (whaaat?!)

193 out of 3,472

Total Time: 2:46:34

I am PUMPED! First time is always a PR!

I am truly touched by all of the love and support that I've received today, THANK YOU for inspiring me to swim faster, bike harder and run sweatier! I love the NYC (and beyond) running community and I'm so happy to be a part of it.

Vacation/Training Camp

Looking ahead...

As the school year came to a close, I stacked my upcoming vacation with trips and tried to figure out how to squeeze my training in with them. The day before vacation began, I had a major day o' activity to start things off right. Thursday the 24th of June was the day my best friend NM was moving to Philly for a year-long residency, so we had to do a run to commemorate it. We always run together on big days including graduation from PT school, my wedding day, etc so this was no exception. We snuck in a very early, hilly 5mi or so before the rest of the city woke up. It was bittersweet, I'm terribly sad to see her leave NY, but excited for the opportunities ahead. After work I was able to come right home and begin the packing process before driving up to Van Cortlandt park for another of the 5K series, no muffin this time because I really held back and took it easy, finishing 1 min slower than last time at 24:08 or so. I didn't care that I had a 9:00 mi 2 because I was saving a lil energy for soccer! Yup, post 5K I trotted back to my car and went directly to a 50 min soccer in the sweltering heat. We won! When I arrived back home, my hubby was home from work so I told him to get his stuff together, he was coming with me to NJ for the night because we were leaving for Calgary, AB Canada in the morning and had to bring the cats down to Mom's house. That worked out nicely! Boy did I sleep good that night...

View from our hike to Grassi Lakes, it was unreal!

Canada was a blast, we spent much of the long weekend in the Canadian Rockies at a beautiful, picturesque lodge tucked away by a great big lake. I was really hoping to get in more training, like a trail run and open water swim, but the trails were too far from the lodge and the lake had leeches in it!! Eww, no thanks. I did manage one run though... But it was an adventure! I asked a nice Aboriginal man where to run and he told me the road (boring) so I asked if their was a path around the lake and he assured me that there was. He mentioned that it was "a bit uneven" and I waved him off. Pshhh, I thought. He neglected to mention the loads of bear poop, the disappearing trail, and the ancient, decrepit bridge that I made it halfway across before noticing that the other half was broken and under water. Sadly, I ended up on the road after all. Boo. I didn't notice the altitude too much, I think we were only at about 3,500ft or so. The hike we did was at about 5,400ft, yay for gorgeous mountains and crisp, blue glacier lakes. I was so relaxed and happy.

When we returned to the States, I took off to NJ for a beach day with Mom on Tuesday and got in a solid 5x1mi intervals workout before the heat crept in. It was fine to get up early on vacation to run because I was all mixed up in terms of my time zones. If it weren't for the heat, I think I could have gone even faster on my run, but I had 5 solid miles anyway. After a hot day at the beach with Mom, I ventured back to the city to spend one night at home before jetting off again. It happened to be the most gorgeous of nights, the humidity was gone and the night air was cool and fresh, it was a preview of the rest of my week.

Wed morning I did an hour of PT with some twins that I work with before hopping back into the (new and shiny) car for a 4hr drive upstate. My good friend SF has a wonderful and charming house in the Adirondacks where she spends the summers swimming in the gorgeous lakes and doing projects around her house. I drove up with my bike, swimsuits, caps, goggles and plenty of comfy clothes. It was going to be relaxing and yet a good training opportunity.

I spent Wed through Sat morning there and had a GREAT time, it sucked to come back home as it did last year also. I managed to swim 2mi each morning with SF across and back in Paradox Lake, consistently in around 50mins each time, despite the different conditions (wind, waves, temp) every day. On Thursday I ran the 3 very hilly miles there, swam, dried off and ran back on numb feet. Brr.

Friday we swam and then after breakfast (yum we had some amazing and fresh food) we ventured to Schroon Lake where I rode around the lake along the course of the Adirondack Marathon (wow, HILLS) for a 26.2 mi ride in 1:45 with a quick mile run after to make it a brick. Whew, the sandwiches we had after the ride/run were unreal too, and I don't think it was just because of my hungry bear state of mind.

Bike Course

We did one last swim on Sat morning with SF's bf paddling his kayak alongside us so we didn't have to bring along our little beachball-string-ankle strap contraptions along to make us visible for any boats on the lake. The beach balls were fun though, hehe especially on the first day when we had a tailwind on the way home and the ball kept smacking me in the head and arm because it was beating me. Anyhow, our last swim was great, I feel like I really got a good rhythm of breathing and sighting down, which is something I didn't feel like I had at the tri in Harriman. Sadly though I had to get in the car and head home to NYC and then on to Jersey for a wedding Sunday. Ahh, what a great way to spend the week though.. we ate delicious foods right from the garden and drank cold beer and even had to bundle up because it was so chilly at night. I wish I could bottle that feeling of relaxation, happiness and sleepiness from a good workout and really great company. I'm so lucky to have such great friends in my life.

I'm feeling pretty pumped for the upcoming NYC Tri... I did another 10 mi bike (much flatter!) and 3mi run Brick workout on Sunday morning just to get in some more time in the saddle and practice the bike to run transition. I realize that it is going to be difficult on race day, but I think I can still do really well. I guess we'll see... 13 days to go!